It is known in the automobile industry that is convenient to have a single termination location for multiple electrical leads going to switches located on a steering column, such as the headlight dimmer and ignition switches. Electrical leads are pigtailed and then hardwired to a single terminal board located at the lower end of a steering column. Each lead is hardwired to a single point by use of a rivet type termination, which is preferred due to its cost effectiveness relative to other types of hardwired terminations. A drawback to this method of termination, however, is that over time terminals loosen and leads move around, pivoting at the terminals. This movement can allow contact between adjacent leads and cause electrical shorts. In addition, the movement reduces the integrity of the electrical connection of a terminal.
A current method of preventing short circuiting is to isolate leads by the use of shrink tubing. This method involves placing a sufficient amount of shrink tubing on each lead prior to connecting the lead to a terminal. Once the lead is riveted to a terminal heat is applied to the shrink tubing to seal it around the lead. When a terminal loosens and contact between leads occur, the shrink tubing provides isolation and prevents short circuiting. However, this method is expensive due to the time intensive process of applying shrink tubing and does not present movement of leads. Another possible solution is to mold isolating barriers onto a terminal board and thereby provide separation of leads. A terminal board would then be modified to apply to a particular switch rather than the universal applicability of the terminal boards which currently exists. This solution would increase inventory problems (having to stock and categorize a variety of terminal boards) and work handling problems (having to choose from a variety of terminal boards depending on the application). In addition, fabrication costs would increase due to having to adapt and reset the riveting mechanism depending on the type of terminal board being used to fabricate the switch.